burr-brown vs. sabre vs. ?

As I understand it you are looking for an analog to digital converter to convert your vinyl analog signals to digital. The devices you mention also have a DAC built it. Are you planning to use the device as both an ADC and a DAC? Many people use separate units for A/D and D/A.

One thing to determine up front, is what format you are striving for. IMO, you should have at least 24/96KHz A/D, although some will say 44 KHz is fine. You may also want DSD. It is all the rage these days, but has the big drawback that you cannot edit the format with low-priced software, except to break it into tracks.

If you are mainly looking for analog to digital converters, I would look at Tascam in the $1,000 and under range. They have handheld options for less than $100 (DR-05) up to the DA-3000 at $1,000. These devices record to a microSD card and you can then transfer the digitized file to a PC via usb. The DR-05 goes up to 24/96KHz and the DA-3000 does 24/192KHz as well as DSD. The CA-3000 uses Burr Brown PCM4202 for A/D and Burr Brown PCM1795 for D/A.

I will concur with others that there is more to A/D design than just what chip is used. That is evident in the details of the design of the DA-3000.

You did not ask about software, but Vinyl Studio is an excellent option for processing the digital file. It allows tracks to be broken out, hum/hiss to be removed, clicks to be removed and it has the added bonus that few software packages have of doing lookups of track names and timing data from online databases, including discogs. It handles DSD files. It also can do software RIAA equalization, which many people prefer to digital equilization. But that depends on your phono pre-amp setup.

Pro Tools is a good packaage, but it is a little overkill for just digitizing vinyl, in my opinion. You do not need all its effects and mixing capabilities. I would give Vinyl Studio a try before going to Pro Tools. Vinyl Studio is $29. Don't let the price fool you. It is a fine tool for digitizing vinyl.

Robertsong: most NOS DACs today are based on old R2R chips. Outside of custom R2R NOS dac (Metrum, TotalDAC), Soekris is a recent one but no one has commercialized it yet...

Someone has managed to turn Burr-brown PCM1794a (6 bit R2R + rest in Delta sigma) into NOS mode (DDDAC1794)!!! I wish more people copy that design...

Lynx is crystal (cirrus logic), same DAC as in many sound cards.

All the DACs with the same chip when properly implemented sounds similar. So first figure out which DAC chip you like the sound of, then find an implementation with the biggest bang for the buck.

I have heard that Lynx HILO makes a very good Hifi Dac as well as ADC. If I were you I would splurge for one of these used. I have no idea what brand(s) of chip it uses, but as others have said it's not the brand of chip that is of primary importance.

thanks for the responses. as I mentioned, I'm actually looking for an 'interface' (musicians use them to convert their audio signals into digital for use with 'digital audio workstations' (like protools). in other words, this ain't 'high end'. I can't imagine any mass-market interface will use the R2R chips... the one I'm leaning towards (audient id14) uses burr-brown, and a very popular one (apogee duet) uses sabre. interestingly, some people don't like the way the apogee boosts highs and lows, which fits what Coli wrote.

Could you guys give some examples of NOS R2R DACS. Who makes the chip or is it a proprietary non-chip design (like Metrum or Chord, I guess). Which DAC manufacturers implement R2R?

Implementation is everything. I had a BB PCM1704 based DAC then built a tube-output Sabre (Buffalo IIISE based) that blows the BB away in every way. Power supply and output stage count at least as much as the DAC chip.

agree with Georgelofi - Burr-Brown vs Sabre is the wrong way to approach the issue.
As posted already, you should hear whether you like a multi-bit DAC (Philips, Burr-Brown) or a single-bit DAC (Sabre, Wolfson, Analog-Devices & some Burr-Brown).
Different strokes for different folks - you might sonically like the 1-bit DACs? Need to listen to find out.
Personally, I prefer a multi-bit DAC including a non-oversampling DAC. YMMV.

burr-brown sounds very nice. Sabre sounds digital thin. NOS R2R sounds heavenly. 1bit DSD sounds super digital thin.

If you are looking for a ADC instead of a DAC, looks at the Ross Martin PCM4222.

"burr-brown vs. sabre vs. ?"

What you should ask is

Delta Sigma which 1bit, bitstream, and even Sabre are,
vs R2R Ladder Multibit dac chip.

Most of the real high end manufacturers are going back to using R2R ladder Multibit, even some using discrete versions of it. Very expensive chips to manufacture compared to Delta Sigma types.
They say only an R2R Ladder Multibit dac chip has "Bit Perfect Precision" It's all how they are implemented, back in the old days ladder dacs didn't have the great I/V stages we can have today and sounded crap because of it.

Cheers George